The GRID Lab Wants To Expose You!
By Matthew Toledo - 8/16/2006
A few days ago, the AMN was contacted by Michael Sweeney. He is the former graphics designer for the Athens News and the current operations manager for the GRID Lab. It's a gaming center located at 5 North Court Street in downtown Athens. So what do video games have to do with local music? Well, Mr. Sweeny wants to help promote your band by playing your music and music videos. He'll even sell your music on cosignment to their customers.
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The GRID lab opened in September of 2005. On paper, its primary purpose is to focus on "serious gaming" like educational games and puzzles. They have some pretty nifty equipment at their facility, including movie editing software, a high quality digital camera and game development tools. Unfortunately, most of us will never get to use any of that stuff. To the average citizen Joe like you and I, the GRID Lab is primarily a video arcade. Mr. Sweeney, however, has an aversion to the term "Video Arcade.";
"When I hear the phrase video arcade, I get an image of game tokens that don't work and video screens with milkshakes spilt on them", stated Mr. Sweeny. "As you can see, this place doesn't look like an arcade, and as for milkshakes, there is no food allowed."
True, the GRID lab looks nothing like an Aladdin's Castle. It looks more like a futuristic game show complete with large, bright orange and white sofas and industrial looking lighting rigs. Glitz and gaming systems aside, the objects that stood out the most to me were the giant widescreen plasma televisions. There are forty screens of various sizes in the GRID lab, and when they aren't being used by gamers, they are playing videos handed down from a marketing firm called iGames.
"You see that", stated Mr. Sweeney. He was pointing at a large 27 inch television. A video for the indie group Nine Black Alps was playing and in the corner of the screen was a logo for Virgin Megastores. "There isn't a Virgin Megastore anywhere near here. We'd much rather be promoting local music."
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This is an excellent opportunity for local musicians to reach out to new crowds. The GRID Lab is open from 12 noon to 12 midnight, and during an average day, the customers will vary in age from elementary school to college. Any music or video you provide them will be on a constant loop and is sure to be seen many times during a single gaming session.
They can accept regular audio CD's or videos that are already in ".mov" format. They are not accepting analog video, VHS or Beta tapes. Videos do not have to be in widescreen format since their monitors and televisions can automatically stretch the video to fill the screen. All music and videos will have to be pre-screened by Mr. Sweeny and his immediate supervisor. Any use of foul language will eliminate your video or song from the play list. As for other visual content, the rules can be bent. Mr. Sweeny explained it like this "There is a level in the game HALO dedicated to getting head shots of your opponents."
All you need to do to take advantage of this offer is show up in person with your CD or video. Mr. Sweeny stated that getting "face time" with the artist was somewhat important. For hours or other contact information, visit the GRID Lab homepage.
Waxing Philosophical
Studies have shown that most people form their personal musical tastes up until about their 22nd birthday. I've tried for two days now to find the paper that states this, but trust me, I heard it on NPR. If you can find the study, please tell me. Anyhow, if someone has never been exposed to live local music and has never seen a local show in person by the time they leave college, the chances are slim that they will start spontaneously going to see ORIGINAL live music during the remainder of their lives.
The GRID Lab, in a way, is letting us tap into the minds of this town's youth. They are already in a cool environment. Why not show them what else is cool. Enter: your band. You'd be silly not to get your group onto this bandwagon. I, for one, will be submitting the occasional video blog of my uptown musical adventures to the Grid LAB.
Live Shows?
Before our conversation ended, Mr. Sweeny and I discussed varous ideas about how the GRID Lab and the Athens music scene could help each other. He's definitely a man with a lot of creativity and ideas. He would be the first to admit that there isn't enough time in the day for him to complete all these concepts. There was one thing, however, that he did mention that I could see happening. Sometime in the next few months, the GRID Lab has planned to hold an event in the mini-mall courtyard. He mentioned that local bands could be on the bill, performing in the window near the entrance. Now's the time to get your act on the bill. Stop by sometime soon and pay him a visit.
